* Describe your first student teaching context (school setting). What school are you at, what are some of its characteristics, and what classes are you teaching, and how are classes scheduled at your school?
I am currently student teaching 7th grade science at J. H. Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, RI. The school has students in grades 5th- 8th with at least two pods or clusters for each grade. The 7th grade is divided into the Barracudas and the Sting Rays, and I am working with the Sting Ray cluster. Classes run about 66 minutes for each period and the students have 5 periods a day with a split lunch period. . The cluster is split into four groups, A, B, C, and D each with 20-25 students per group. The school operates on a 6 day schedule so that each day has a different order for the groups, and each day the same class isn't always split up by lunch. So far, I have seen how each group has its own dynamics and personality types, which helps me and the co-teacher decide which classes to tackle first and what techniques to use for taking on the more difficult groups. The 5 period set up means that every class meets every day (in different order depending on the day number) and 4 periods are math, ELA, social studies or science, and 1 period is a co-curricular (art, tech, music). The Co-curricular is usually our planning period, and Mrs. Howell and I started planning together righ away. I have already take over the bulk of class instruction for all four groups save the grading and some homework planning, but everything seems to be running smoothly and I enjoy the students and my CT very much.
* Explain one of your "stealth" objectives that you want to accomplish with your students and why.
I wasn't sure what my stealth objective was going to be at first because the performance level varies so much between the four groups. Two groups are a pretty good mix, but then the other two groups are almost polar opposites. After getting up in front of them a few times, discussing and answering questions I have decided my stealth objective is to make them see that they can understand science and represent it in ways other than using a text book. I found that a lot of them know where to find information and write down a lot of words when they see it, but they stil aren't sure what it means. The other day they got into groups and had to perform a skit that showed the role/importance of each particle (proton, neutron, electron) in an atom. The students were excited about the assignment so I thought their skits would be very dramatic, but many groups didn't have that dramatic quality in their performance. I hope to show students that science can be explained and understood using more than just text books and facts and experiments that other people have done. I hope students will be able to explain science through pictures and stories and analogies to make it something real and still exciting.
* Describe your first student teaching context (school setting). What school are you at, what are some of its characteristics, and what classes are you teaching, and how are classes scheduled at your school?
I am currently student teaching 7th grade science at J. H. Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, RI. The school has students in grades 5th- 8th with at least two pods or clusters for each grade. The 7th grade is divided into the Barracudas and the Sting Rays, and I am working with the Sting Ray cluster. Classes run about 66 minutes for each period and the students have 5 periods a day with a split lunch period. . The cluster is split into four groups, A, B, C, and D each with 20-25 students per group. The school operates on a 6 day schedule so that each day has a different order for the groups, and each day the same class isn't always split up by lunch. So far, I have seen how each group has its own dynamics and personality types, which helps me and the co-teacher decide which classes to tackle first and what techniques to use for taking on the more difficult groups. The 5 period set up means that every class meets every day (in different order depending on the day number) and 4 periods are math, ELA, social studies or science, and 1 period is a co-curricular (art, tech, music). The Co-curricular is usually our planning period, and Mrs. Howell and I started planning together righ away. I have already take over the bulk of class instruction for all four groups save the grading and some homework planning, but everything seems to be running smoothly and I enjoy the students and my CT very much.
* Explain one of your "stealth" objectives that you want to accomplish with your students and why.
I wasn't sure what my stealth objective was going to be at first because the performance level varies so much between the four groups. Two groups are a pretty good mix, but then the other two groups are almost polar opposites. After getting up in front of them a few times, discussing and answering questions I have decided my stealth objective is to make them see that they can understand science and represent it in ways other than using a text book. I found that a lot of them know where to find information and write down a lot of words when they see it, but they stil aren't sure what it means. The other day they got into groups and had to perform a skit that showed the role/importance of each particle (proton, neutron, electron) in an atom. The students were excited about the assignment so I thought their skits would be very dramatic, but many groups didn't have that dramatic quality in their performance. I hope to show students that science can be explained and understood using more than just text books and facts and experiments that other people have done. I hope students will be able to explain science through pictures and stories and analogies to make it something real and still exciting.